Save a workflow definition in Design mode

About this task

You can save a workflow definition document in either an IBM® FileNet® repository (object store or library) or in your local file system.

To make a workflow definition available for launch outside of Process Designer, the workflow definition must be checked in to an object store or library that has the Workflow definition document class. If you use the Launch command in Process Designer to run the workflow, the program will prompt you to save. You can disable the automatic Add/Check in feature in the workflow preferences.

Procedure

To save a workflow definition document in an object store or library for the first time:

  1. From the File menu, click FileNet > FileNet Add New.
  2. Click Browse, and then open the appropriate object store and folder.
  3. Enter a title for the document.
    If you leave the document title blank, the document title will display as a very long number.
  4. Optional: Specify security access for other users.
  5. Click Finish.
    This creates the first version of the document in the object store and then immediately checks the document out again so that you can continue to work on it. To close the document at this point, click File > Close.

Results

To save changes to an existing workflow definition that you have checked out:

From the File menu, click FileNet, and then click one of the following choices:

  • Use FileNet Check In to check in the changes and unlock the file. This increments the version of the workflow definition. Process Designer closes the workflow definition after the check-in.
  • Use FileNet Save to save the changes temporarily and continue working in the open workflow definition. FileNet Save does not increment the version in the object store.
    Tip: When you exit from Process Designer (by using File > Exit) or you open a different workflow definition, Process Designer prompts you to either check in the file (save the changes), or cancel the checkout (discard all changes back to the last check-in).
To save an open workflow definition document to your local file system:
  1. From the File menu, click Save.
  2. Browse to the location where you will store the file.
  3. Enter a file name.

If the workflow definition document contains one workflow definition, the default format is a PEP file. If the workflow definition document contains more than one workflow definition or contains one or more scenarios, the file format is XPDL 2.0. PEP is a Process Designer proprietary format. To retain compatibility with other workflow definition editors, a workflow collection is always saved in XPDL format if it was once saved in that format. Even if a collection contains only one workflow definition, this rule still applies. However, you can save individual workflows PEP format by selecting the following menu options: Action > Save Workflow to Local. For more information about XPDL 2.0, see Open XPDL 2.0 documents in Process Designer.

You can add a locally saved workflow definition to your object store or library using the normal procedure for adding a document. To make the workflow definition accessible to Process Designer, the workflow .pep or XPDL file must be assigned to the Workflow Definition document class, and must be added as a major version.

Tip: If you use File > Exit to close a Process application (such as Process Designer), the application prompts you to save any unsaved changes before it closes. However, if you click the Close button [X] in the upper right corner of the window, one of the following actions occurs:
  • If the program is running as an application, it prompts you to save any changes.
  • If the program is running as an applet inside a browser window, the program closes immediately and any unsaved changes are lost. (The name of the browser is displayed in the title bar.)